One of the things on my list of 100 things to do in 1001 days was to re-read Alvin Toffler's Future Shock.
In the unlikely event that you aren't familiar with this book, it was written in 1970 about the shift from an industrial society to a super-industrial society. Toffler thought that (after observing the slow uptake of the government's response to the way our society, technology, travel, etc. were speeding up) people would experience something akin to culture shock.
His prediction was that in time, even when we stayed put, the culture would change so fast we'd be constantly disoriented. Other notable phrases in the book were, "information overload", and "too much change in too short a period of time".
This is a trivial example, but it's the way I'm experiencing this phenomenon. There are so many things to know about, that people retire from their fame as "legends" and I've never heard of them! The first time we noticed this was when a country singer, said to be famous, retired. GoodGuy and I looked at each other, amazed.
I'm just barely hanging on to the coattails of new technology. I have no use for a smarter phone, and I don't need to take pictures of people at the grocery store, or keep anyone informed of my every snack. But I feel a little sorry for geezers my age, who decided they had no use for computers and weren't going to learn.
Now they feel slighted because many events are announced via e-mail, and nobody calls them to remind them. Nobody apologizes about that either. They assume that everyone has at least one computer!
I couldn't finish "Future Shock". By 2010 it seemed quaint. That's the speed of the world we live in now.
'Twould be a bit like reading George Orwell's "1984" in 2011, wouldn't it?
ReplyDeleteIt IS snowing here now.
I wish my dad WOULD get and use a computer - - - but he refuses. My main mode of communication is e-mail and blogging.
I take pictures at the grocery store, but not normally of people LOL
ReplyDeleteSomeone made a comment the other day that the last surviving WWI vet died at the age of 110. I said that I would have liked to have known if he had an email account. All of the technology that that man saw, all of the changes in 110 years. Can you even imagine.
I went off on a tangent LOL
I just wrote on someones blog how my grand kids get the biggest kick when I tell them we only had 3 tv channels when I was little. We did not have a color Tv until I was 10.
ReplyDeleteWhat will they see. I worry it will change too fast...in a not so good way.
Hope you are well way UP there. We have a break here today 59 degrees in Phila.
You photo is gorgeous!!
Interesting post. I keep encouraging grandparents to embramce some of the technology since it can keep the extended family and friends better connected.
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